Today the White House patted itself on the back for an economic ’stimulus’ which they claim is proving incredibly effective at restoring economic growth:

Estimates of the impact of the ARRA made by comparing actual economic performance to the predictions of a plausible, statistical baseline suggest that the Recovery Act added roughly 2.3 percentage points to real GDP growth in the second quarter and is likely to add even more to growth in the third quarter…

This analysis indicates that the ARRA and other policy actions caused employment in August to be slightly more than 1 million jobs higher than it otherwise would have been.

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Compare and contrast. From the AP:

Democrats said the [stimulus] bill’s tax cuts would help 95 percent of all Americans, much of the relief in the form of a break of $400 for individuals and $800 for couples. At the insistence of the White House, people who do not earn enough money to owe income taxes are eligible, an attempt to offset the payroll taxes they pay.

How effective is that? Let’s ask an expert on the issue of tax breaks:

You’re getting $600. What can you do with that? Not to be ungrateful or anything. But maybe it pays down a bill, but it doesn’t pay down every bill every month.

–Michelle Obama on the Bush tax rebate of 2001. Somehow, the First Lady’s criticisms of paltry tax rebates was just not considered when the current stimulus bill was crafted.